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A  UTHOR: 


BRERETON,  ROBERT 
MAITLAND 


TITLE: 


SOME  THOUGHTS 
ABOUT  HUMAN  LIFE 

PLACE* 

WOODSTOCK,  (ORE.) 

DA  TE: 

1906 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

BIBLIQCR  APHIC  MTCROFORM  TARHFT 


*  Master  Negative  # 


Original  Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliographic  Record 


Restrictions  on  Use: 


I 


Broreton,  Robert  Maitland 

Indi^^  14®°"®  thoughts  about  human  life; 
indxvxduallsm.  reincarnation 
Woodstock  (Ore)   1906    lo  p 


spirit,  matte] 


earth 


Cover  title  "reads : 


Individualism  in  life 


on 


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TECHNICAL  MICROFORM  DATA 
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DATE     FILMED: jhZJJi:^ INITIALS__J?/ /^ 

HLMEDBY:    RESEARCHPUBLICATIONIS.  INC  WOOnRRinnFrr' 


c 


Association  for  Information  and  Imago  Managomont 

1100  Wayne  Avenue.  Suite  1100. 
Silver  Spring,  Maryland  20910 

301/587-8202 


Centimeter 

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MRNUFflCTURED  TO  flllM  STONDORDS 
BY  APPLIED   IMRGE.    INC. 


V 


Some  Thoughts  About 


H 


uman 


Life. 


SPIRIT  —  MATTER  —  INDIVIDUALISM 
REINCARNATION. 


Lkjs^ 


By  ROBERT  MAITLAND  BRERETON. 


WOODSTOCK.  OREGON.  EASTER  1906. 


\ 


1 


vr> 


o3 


INDIVIDUALISM  OF  LIFE  IN  NATURE 


1 


Few  of  us  realize  fully  enouj3:li  the  importaut  truth  that 
we  are,  in  a  way,  living:  i"  the  past,  present  and  future— 
the  Trinity  of  Eternity.     History— the  past  history  of  our 
Ang^lo-Saxon  race  throug^h  its  evolutionary  stages— is  a  con- 
tinuing: suhject  of  interest  to  us  in  earth-life;  it  will  be  the 
same  to  our  posterity.    Deeds  and  inscribed  thoughts— noble 
and  wicked— follow  us  into  the  World  of  Spirit ;  leave  rec- 
ords  behind   on   earth.      We  may  view   the   present  as  an 
evidence  of  the  revolutionary  stag^e  in  civilized  progression, 
from  the  past  lower  humanism  of  our  ancestors:    our  pos- 
terity will  view  it  in  like  manner.    In  the  time  of  the  Roman 
conquest  of  Britain  our  race  was  barbarian  and  heathenish; 
today  we  rank  as  the  most  enlightened  and  most  highly  civ- 
ilized race  on  earth.     This  present  higher  mental  and  ethical 
growth   cannot   be  derived   from  any  material   or  physical 
force  of  inheritance ;  it  can  only  be  the  result  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  higher  form  of  the  spiritual  life-forces,  peculiar 
to  man  in  the  flesh.    The  clear  evidence  of  this  humanizing 
growth,  outside  of  the  material   life,  should  form  one  of 
the  strongest  props  of  our  faith  and  hope  in  the  continuity 
of  human  life.     The  wonderful  drama  of  human  possibility 
in  earth-life  is  more  beautifully  unfolded  than  ever  before 
in  the  discovery  and  utilization  of  some  of  the  occult  forces 
of  nature.     The  more  popular  recognition  of  the  marvelous 
individualism,  which  prevails  through  this  material  world, 
greatly  increases  the  human  interest  in  life  in  its  spiritual 
amj  material  forms.     Throughout  animated  and  inanimated 
nature  we  may  observe  this  peculiar  feature  which  makes 
us  reflect  on  the  occult  cause  and  the  materializing  effect 
thereof.      IMan  and    beast,  bird,    reptile,    fish    and  insect, 


38S877 


f. 


flower  and  mineral,  all  display  the  occult  dcsipiin^j^  will  and 
the  material  formings:  of  the  individualized  object.  The 
senses  of  touch,  taste,  sii^ht,  sound  and  smell  are  individual- 
ized in  each  case.  The  doq^  distinj^uishes  his  owner's  scent 
of  foot  and  clothin,qf  from  those  of  others ;  the  shepherd's 
dog^  will  separate,  one  by  one,  his  master's  sheep  from  a 
mixed  up  flock :  animals  recoj^jnize  by  their  scent  their  own 
young,  and  will  only  suckle  such,  except  when  fooled  by 
man's  master-devices.  Every  crystal  has  its  own  mathe- 
matically precise  proportion  of  sides  and  anc^les :  so  also 
has  each  trianc^le.  The  material  make-up  of  each  livin^tjf 
object  in  nature  is  one  of  occult  individualized  desi.G^n  and 
w^ill-force,  which  are  not  of  the  earth,  air  and  water  that 
form  the  substance.  The  body  and  the  perfume  thereof 
are  from  the  soil,  air  and  water,  obtained  throujn^h  the  se- 
lective life-force  of  nature  to  suit  the  individual  case.  Thus 
from  the  same  i>"eneral  storehouse  of  earth,  air  and  water, 
this  occult  life  is  materialized  after  its  own  individualized 
intention  in  form,  odor  and  development,  under  the  natural 
conditions  and  surroundinc^s  of  its  temporal  life.  If  we 
knew  and  could  command  the  hij^^hest  conditions  of  materiali- 
zation on  earth,  we  could  achieve  instantaneous  manifesta- 
tion of  objects  from  earth,  air  and  water.  In  the  tropics 
we  may  see  the  bamboo,  at  certain  seasons  and  under  favor- 
able conditions  of  soil,  moisture  and  temperature,  sprout  at 
the  rate  of  three-quarter  inch  per  hour.  >rushrooms  spring 
up  in  a  night  with  fully  developed  cells  and  spores.  Jonah's 
gourd  grew  up  in  a  night  and  covered  his  sheltering  booth, 
and  perished  in  a  night  (Jo.  Iv-io).  The  Zarephath's 
widow^'s  barrel  of  meal  and  cruse  of  oil  were  materialized 
from  day  to  day  showing  no  exhaustion  of  the  supply 
though  three  persons  fed  therefrom  for  a  full  year  (iKi. 
xvii-i6).  A  chariot  and  horses  materialized  before  the 
eyes  of  Elisha  and  as  suddenly  dematerialized,  and  with  it 
the  earthly  living  body  of  Elijah  (2  Ki.  2-1 1).  Christ  ma- 
terialized and  dematerialized  before  his  disciples,  and 
showed  them  that  the  materialization  was  real  by  making 
them  feel  him. 


It  is  through  our  present  ignorance  of  nature's  laws  of 
chemical  and  assimilating  properties,  and  occult  life  forces, 
that  we  view  all  abnormal  material  manifestations  as  either 
miracles  or  fakes.  Our  ancestors  would  have  looked  upon 
the  electrical  illuminations  and  communications  of  today  as 
miracles.  Daily  scientists,  philosophers  and  other  workers, 
are  gaining  more  light  and  more  accurate  knowledge  about 
these  life-forces  in  nature.  We  are  better  able,  than  our 
forefathers  were,  to  realize  with  St.  Paul  that  "there  is  a 
natural  (carnal)  body,  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body."  This 
dual  nature  of  man  in  earth-life  was  known  to  Job :  "There 
is  a  spirit  in  man."  "Then  shall  the  dust  (body)  return  to 
the  dust  as  it  was  (from  whence  it  came)  and  the  Spirit 
(the  true  man)  shall  return  to  God  who  gave  it."  Man 
being  mentally  and  physically  the  highest  form  of  material- 
ization of  spirit-life  on  earth,  is  the  only  material  being  that 
can  comprehend  the  reality  of  the  eternity  of  life.  In  no 
other  sense  can  he  think  of  the  Great  Spirit  as  his  Father 
and  say  with  the  Psalmist  of  Israel,  "Bless  the  Lord,  O  my 
Soul,  and  all  that  is  uitJiin  me" ;  neither  can  the  Giristian 
ignore  those  vital  words  of  Christ,  "God  is  a  Spirit — He  is 
my  Father  and  your  Father — Call  no  man  your  Father 
(that  is  the  Father  of  your  true  Spirit-Self)  on  the  Earth, 
for  One  is  your  Father — He  is  God."  Thus  we  logically 
conceive  the  idea  that  the  Great  Spirit  of  Life  "is  above  all, 
and  through  all,  and  is  in  us  all,"  in  this  earth-life. 

Materialism  is  the  dark  veil  between  our  material  and 
spiritual  view^  of  life  on  earth.  We  base  our  faith  so  much 
on  our  material  senses,  forgetting  how  very  imperfect  these 
often  are  found,  and  give  so  little  careful  thought  and  study 
to  the  true  spiritual  side  of  our  divine  mentality.  Mesmer- 
ism, clairvoyance,  electro-biology  and  telepathy,  all  of  which 
belong  to  our  spiritual  nature,  are  uncanny  and  awesome  to 
the  material  mind ;  true  is  the  saying,  "to  be  carnally  minded 
is  death ;  to  be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace."  The 
spirit-soul  of  man  is  the  vital  theme,  not  the  flesh,  "which 
profiteth  nothing"  in  the  evolution  of  human  life.  This  is 
nature's  own  teaching  manifested  in  a  thousand  forms — 


\ 


"dust  to  dust,  spirit  to  spirit."  Flesh  and  blood  cannot 
enter  the  spirit-worid.  Christ  laid  his  axe  to  the  material 
idea  of  the  Resurrection  when  he  said :  "Ye  must  be  reborn'' 
into  the  spirit-world;  thus  indicatinj^^  the  existerxe  of  the 
human  spirit  before  it  entered  into  the  material  life.  This 
is  the  Christian's  argument  for  the  continuity  of  the  human 
life.  The  only  real  thou.irht,  in  re^^ard  to  future  material 
life  that  is  worth  while  meditating  on,  is  that  of  reincarna- 
tion for  which  we  may  find  a  wide  field  in  nature.  It  forms 
the  thought  and  the  belief  of  millions  of  the  human  race  on 
earth.  If  the  pre-existing  human-spirit  has  the  power,  or 
the  all-ruling  destiny,  to  enter  into  earth-life  once,  it  could 
do  so  again  and  again.  This  theory  supports  the  evolution- 
ary- evidence  of  higher  human  progression.  It  removes  the 
mental  difficulty  experienced  in  thinking  about  the  vast 
capacity  of  the  unseen  world  of  many  thousands  of 
billions  of  human  spirits  that  have  left  the  earth  life.  The 
bible  relates  incidents  of  the  human  form  of  materialization. 
Christ  said  of  John  the  Baptist,  "this  is  Elijah  which  was 
for  to  come."  (jVIatt.  xl  114. )  In  this  sense  only  is  material 
resurrection  conceivable  from  nature's  standpoint.  It  is  not 
supposable  that  John's  body  could  have  been  comi)osed  of 
the  identical  constituents  of  Elijah's  original  body;  it  was 
the  spirit-soul  of  Elijah  that  Christ  spoke  of.  Reincarna- 
tion may  be  the  destiny-scheme  of  the  Wisdom  of  the 
Universe,  for  the  evolution  of  spirit-humanity  to  higher 
and  higher  stages,  during  the  past,  present  and  future 
periods  of  life  on  earth. 

The  supposable  intermittent  or  alternating  periods  of 
human  life  and  experiences,  in  the  worlds  of  spirit  and  mat- 
ter, may  be  the  true  source  and  motor  force  of  the  marvel- 
ous evolutionary  progression,  from  the  past  barbarian  stage 
to  the  present  highest  civilized  one  on  earth  of  tl.e  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  during  the  past  2,ocx)  years.  Electricity, 
X-Rays,  Radio-Activity,  and  other  occult  civilizing  forces 
in  nature  have  been  in  earth's  store  during  the  whole  of 
human  material  life,  but  have  been  withheld  from  human 
cognizance  and  application  until  of  late  years.    The  future 


y 


t» 


will  still  more  wonderfully  unfold  these  and  other  sources 
of  occult  natural  forces  for  the  use  of  the  still  higher  evo- 
liitionized  posterity.  It  is  only  a  few  years  since  we  thought 
electrical  power  transmission  over  fifty  miles  a  marvelous 
achievement ;  now  scientists  and  electrical  experts  believe  in 
the  probable  extension  of  the  radius  of  transmission  to  five 
hundred  miles.  The  discovery  of  the  universality  of  Radio- 
Activity  has  opened  out  the  largest  conceivable  field  for 
speculative  human  thought  to  expand  in,  evolving  the  long 
hoped-for  interconununication  between  the  planets  of  the 
sun.  It  has  upset  the  mundane  calculations  of  the  greatest 
living  physicists  and  mathematicians  of  the  age,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  millions  of  years,  in  the  earth's  birth,  the  moon's 
separation  from  the  earth,  and  the  geological  periods  of  the 
consolidated  earth.  The  sun  and  its  planets  are  steadily 
decreasing  in  speed  of  rotation,  and  the  sun  is  as  steadily 
contracting.  This  serves  to  keep  up  the  emission  of  heat 
which  vivifies  man's  earth.  Thus  so  long  as  this  endures 
the  material  form  of  man  may  exhibit  itself,  and  so  long 
may  the  theory  of  reincarnation  be  naturally  conceivable. 
The  idea  of  individualized  material  resurrection  is  not  con- 
ceivable, because  that  is  of  the  nature  of  the  miraculous, 
which  is  not  the  law  of  nature.  Forgetfulness  of  former 
material  and  spiritual  existence,  oflFers  no  serious  objection 
to  the  surmise  of  reincarnation  on  earth.  Everywhere  we 
have  heard  of  well-established  evidence  of  instances  of  the 
temporal  loss  of  memory  of  past  scenes,  of  the  mother- 
tongue  and  of  other  matter  through  accident,  sickness,  in- 
sanity, etc.  Our  physically  formed  brain  matter  may  be  of 
too  imperfect  construction  to  act  as  a  suitable  machine  for 
the  touch  of  past  spiritual  reminiscences.  This  may  be  a 
providential  ordering  for  the  present  stage  of  man's  life  in 
the  world.  Mentally  and  physically  constituted  as  we  are, 
we  can  best  fulfil  our  destiny  in  the  material  life  that  now 
is,  and  await  the  advent  of  the  next  rebirth  in  the  eternity 
of  our  life. 

Assuming  the  correctness  of  the  popular  thought  of  man 
on  earth,  from  earliest  days  of  his  earth-birth  to  the  present 


r.\ 


time,  that  the  fatherland  of  mankind  is  the  spirit-world,  and 
that  the  earth  forms  the  scene  for  the  manifestation  of  the 
materiahzation  of  every  known  ohject  of  spirit-Hfe  thereon, 
we  reahze  the  ever  unfolding"  drama  of  human  existence  and 
periods  of  evolutionary-  progression,  in  both  the  spiritual 
and  the  material  worlds.  The  emigrations  from  this  father- 
land of  human  spirits  of  every  race,  and  of  every  grade  of 
ethical  consciousness — from  the  *'hell-born  to  the  heaven- 
born" — form  the  most  interesting  biological  study  to  civil- 
ized man  on  earth.  Spirit-man  possessing  divine  free-will, 
and  under  the  influence  of  destiny  or  Providence,  could  be- 
come incarnate  in  any  age,  in  any  family  of  any  race  on 
earth.  This  theory  may  account  for  the  birth  of  a  child  in 
a  family  with  natural  instincts  totally  foreign  to  those  of  its 
parents,  brothers  and  sisters,  and  hence  it  is  termed  "a  black 
sheep"  of  the  family.  It  is  called  "a  degenerate,"  which  is 
clearly  a  misnomer ;  since  spiritual  and  mental  evolution  in 
humanism  indicates  betterment,  not  degeneracy.  This 
*'black  sheep"  is  simply  a  human  spirit  "out-of-place"  within 
its  family,  and  belongs  to  some  other  race  on  earth  less 
civilized.  We  should  recognize  the  probable  fact  that  we 
are  the  parents  of  our  children's  material  bodies  only;  we 
cannot  select  or  refuse  the  spirit-souls  which  enter  them; 
we  can  only,  as  it  were,  foster  them  through  the  period  of 
materializing  gestation.  Every  human  parent  on  earth  can 
perceive  that  no  two  of  the  children  are  exactly  alike  in 
their  mentality,  even  though  they  be  twin-born  and  phys- 
ically the  counterpart  >of  each  other.  This  mental  unique- 
ness in  the  human  teaches  us  many  important  lessons  in 
human  socialism  and  ethics.  Egoism,  as  opposed  to  altru- 
ism, is  the  effect  of  this  human  individualism;  it  may  be 
modified  by  the  associations  and  conditions  of  earthly  life, 
but  never  eradicated.  Parental  love,  mating  love,  marital 
love  and  patriotic  love,  as  developed  in  humanity  on  earth, 
are  all,  more  or  less,  of  a  material  and  temporal  nature, 
suitable  to  the  earthly  conditions  of  life;  whereas  altruistic 
love  is  the  very  opposite  to  the  material.  In  it  we  recognize 
the  divine  or  spiritual  side  of  humanity.     It  embraces  our 


8 


love  and  reverence  of  the  Fatherhood  of  the  Great  Spirit  of 
Life,  and  of  the  brotherhood  of  man.  It  is  displayed  in  the 
prayers  and  aspirations  of  the  spirit-soul;  in  the  various 
works  of  charity  or  love ;  in  the  studj  and  admiration  of  the 
marvelous  beauties  and  workings  of  nature.  In  being 
spiritually  minded  we  are  best  in  touch  with  our  real  life 
and  are  best  fitted  to  fulfil  our  destiny  in  the  present  life  on 
earth.  We  become  in  closer  touch  with  friends  and  rela- 
tives who  have  been  reborn  into  the  spirit-world — the  spirit- 
ual fac-simile  of  our  material  world.  *'Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,"  said  Christ;  "We 
are  compassed  about  with  a  great  crowd  of  witnesses." 
wrote  St.  Paul ;  "I  believe  in  the  Communion  (society,  social 
intercourse)  of  Saints  (the  spiritual  fellowship  of  all  true 
believers,  both  Iking  and  dead)  and  in  the  Life  everlast- 
ing," is  the  weekly  Sunday-uttered  Creed  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the 
United  States. 

From  this  innate  psychical  consciousness  of  the  spirit 
side  of  man,  grows  the  belief  in  the  survival  of  the  fittest — 
the  spirit-soul — throughout  the  periods  of  evolutionary 
metamorphosis.  Telepathy  or  thought-transference  between 
human  beings  in  earth  life  has  been  proved  to  exist  without 
any  assistance  from  nearness  of  physical  contact.  This  nat- 
ural, though  invisible,  touch  of  fellow-feeling  in  physical 
form  of  life  must  be  still  more  sensitive  in  the  metaphysical 
and  more  refined  stage ;  so  that  the  ever-existing  belief  that 
there  is  this  touch  and  communion  existing  between  mem- 
bers of  the  human  society  on  earth  and  those  of  the  de- 
parted is  in  the  ascendant,  and  as  fast  and  wide  spreading 
as  there  is  more  enlightenment.  If  the  soul  of  man  can 
truly  believe  in  being  in  spiritual  intercourse  and  touch  with 
its  Spirit-Father — as  shown  in  words  of  prayer  and  praise — 
we  should  have  no  hesitation  about  believing  in  the  com- 
munion with  departed  friends  and  relatives  whom  we  have 
seen  and  loved;  we  should  have  no  ignorant  fears  about 
ghosts  and  haunted  places.  In  token  of  loving  remembrance 
we  decorate,  periodically,  the  last  resting  spots  of  the  mortal 


V 


v» 


remains  of  our  friends,  relatives,  patriotic  and  philanthropic 
men  and  women  witli  livin^:^  flower  and  greenery.  These 
are  a  proof  of  the  universal  faith  in  the  continuity  of  the 
individual  human  life.  But  for  this  innate  faith  and  hope 
in  a  future,  man  would  be  better  off  if  he  had  been  created 
with  the  unmoral  standard  of  the  brute  and  bird  creation 
of  life  on  earth.  To  know  good  and  evil — right  and  wrong 
— to  possess  the  free-will  to  choose,  and  to  be  sensible  of 
the  feeling  of  remorse  would  be  useless  endowments  to  man 
on  earth  and  in  the  spirit-world  if  everlasting  evolutionary 
progression  in  higher  features  of  mentality  and  morality 
were  not  a  reality.  The  old  saying  that  *^the  child  is  the 
father  of  the  man"  is  strikingly  verified  in  the  present  civ- 
ilized outcome  of  the  Vnglo-Saxon  race  from  the  barbarian 
cradle.  Individualism  in  man  is  a  wonderful  object  in 
Nature.  Its  egoistical  side  is  splendidly  rendered  in  Job's 
diction:  '' I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,"  which  Handel 
has  exquisitely  improvised  in  the  music  of  the  anthem  we 
hear  rendered  with  beautiful  effect  at  this  Eastertide.  With 
this  truth  realized  in  our  soul,  with  this  music  in  our  ears, 
we  can  laugh  at  materialism  and  its  sequence,  pessimism, 
and  perceive  more  clearly  the  force  of  the  sarcastic  ques- 
tion, "O  Death!  where  is  thy  sting?  O  Grave!  where  is 
thy  victory?" 


r'  H 


lO 


